Lemongrass Cultivation and Oil Distillation Project

Lemongrass cultivation project for sustainability in core area villages in Palamau Tiger Reserve( 2020 – ongoing ), In association with Nature Conservation Society, Jharkhand, (NCS.org.in)

The Palamau Tiger Reserve is one of 50 tiger reserves in India which is a haven for wild animals. Having visited the Reserve regularly for a better part of a decade, I have keenly observed and studied the symbiotic relationship between the native communities and the surrounding forest. This relationship is especially strong in the core areas of the reserve where village populations are almost entirely dependent on the forest. Hence, to ensure that the villagers sustain the ecological balance in the future, it is necessary to create sustainable sources of livelihood that provides the villagers with resources and does not diminish the forest in any manner. Having met with various communities across the Reserve, I concluded that Lemongrass cultivation is a viable proposition, since it allows for a source of economic livelihood for the villagers and decreases the conflict between the villagers and the surrounding wildlife since they do not eat such aromatic crops.

With this in mind, I am installing a lemongrass oil distillation unit in Armu, a village located in the core area of the Reserve, in association with the Nature Conservation Society in Daltonganj (http://ncs.org.in/).

The scope of the project is as under-

• Formation of co-operative of the villagers engaged in cultivating, distillation and sale of the end produce (lemongrass oil and by-products)
• Lemon grass cultivation (in progress)
• Installation of a lemon grass oil distillation unit- I am enabling this through crowd funding
• Research and evaluating different types of distillation units to enable the first batch of oil extraction keeping in mind environmental impact and cost limitations
• Installation of the distillation unit on site
• Arranging buyers for the oil and by-products

Discussions with the villagers in Armu have been made to form a co-operative engaged in cultivating, distillation and sale of the end produce (lemongrass oil and by-products). The villagers have already put in their own land under cultivation for lemon grass. The next step is to procure and set up a distillation unit. As per plan, this unit should be set up in the next 4 months to enable the first batch of oil extraction possible right after.

While this is an ongoing project, the opportunity and experience it is providing me to make a sustainable impact at the grass root level is enriching. It is also exposing me to the complexities of trying to setup an end to end system from start to finish.

Dec 2020 Update –

We did it! Despite the enormous challenges brought about with Covid, we managed to install the distillation unit. The cooperative members were trained and the first batch of oil was greeted by much enthusiasm and elation on 22nd Dec. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ranchi/lemon-grass-distillation-plant-set-up-in-maoist-hit-garu-through-crowdfunding/articleshow/79958590.cms